Yep, in an ideal world there would be two lines of products - the "wait for the bus" jacket and the actual tough jacket. In the real world, this sometimes happe

Yep, in an ideal world there would be two lines of products - the "wait for the bus" jacket and the actual tough jacket. In the real world, this sometimes happens but after a while it's seen as a cost center and killed, like you say. One example of this (that hasn't been killed yet) is LL Bean's Katahdin Iron Works stuff. It's excellent quality for the money and has held up unlike any other clothing I've bought recently. That's not to say their regular stuff is lower quality, however. Western Mountaineering has pretty good quality stuff from what I've heard. Personally, my favorite piece of outerwear is a vest I got in Ukraine - handmade, for a couple bucks. Extremely warm, and no fancy micromaterials but it works and it works well. I'm wondering what other little gems of high-quality clothing at a low cost are out there - I imagine sherpas would know.